President Trump Delivers Major Campaign Promise

Yesterday President Trump announced the signing of a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Renegotiating trade relations with the other two North American countries was a major plank of the president’s campaign strategy, and as has been his focus, he has delivered on that promise. Johnny Kampis, writing at The American Spectator, explains the new deal:

The U.S. and Canada announced on Sunday night, hours before a Sept. 30 deadline to notify Congress, that they had reached a trade agreement. This comes weeks after the U.S. and Mexico had come to new terms.

But the new trade agreement won’t be called the North America Free Trade Agreement, which has become a dirty phrase for President Trump. Instead he has named the new deal the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA for short.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland released a joint statement touting the benefits of the deal.

“USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region,” they said. “It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home.”

Automotive manufacturing plays a key role in the agreement, which requires that 75 percent of vehicles (versus 62.5 percent under NAFTA) be made in North America to avoid tariffs. Automotive workers must be paid at least $16 an hour and more domestic materials from North America must be used to build the vehicles.

Peter Navarro, a White House trade adviser, told the Washington Post a main objective of the deal use to encourage more use of domestic suppliers by American companies.